Slavia renew Reds Euro appeal

Last updated at 11:27 27 July 2005

Slavia Prague have renewed their appeal to UEFA over losing their Champions League seeding position to Liverpool.

Last season's Champions League winners will be in Friday's draw for the third and final qualifying round, and although they still have to complete their second round clash with Kaunas, they are likely to go through after winning the first leg 3-1 in Lithuania.

Should the Barclays Premiership side take their place in the final qualifying round, as expected, Slavia would be forced to surrender their seeding to Liverpool.

That would result in the Czech side facing much tougher opposition and potentially losing out on a place in the lucrative group stage.

Slavia have already had an appeal rejected by UEFA at the start of the month but the club have not given up their efforts to question the decision.

The Gambrinus Liga runners-up, together with the Czech football association (CMFS), have appealed directly to UEFA president Lennart Johansson.

The official initially favouring the inclusion of Liverpool after their fifth-placed finish in the Premiership meant they missed out on automatic Champions League qualification.

"We repeat again that we have nothing against the inclusion of Liverpool into Champions League," said Slavia's general manager Vladimir Leska.

"The only thing we want is that Slavia is not harmed by this."

The CMFS have sent a letter to Johansson supporting Slavia's case.

Petr Fousek, general secretary of the CMFS, confirmed: "We have led a lot of negotiations at UEFA, similar to the Croatian Football Federation (HNS), which tried to protect the interests of Hajduk Split."